A blog by students at the University of Portsmouth

Happy Chinese New Year!

Growing up I celebrated all Chinese New Year in Hong Kong, but this is my first Chinese New Year in UK without family. I was very fortunate to celebrate it with my friends here. We first put up some spring couplets as decorations then spent 4.5 hours to prepare a reunion dinner. Food is a big part of the celebration, a common element of Chinese New Year’s feasts is fish since the Chinese word for fish shares the same pronunciation with the word for abundance, thus eating fish is believed to bring a surplus of money or good luck in the coming year.

“Chinese New Year” aka “Spring Festival”, is the most important festival for Chinese. The date is based on the lunar calendar thus varies every year but normally falls between mid-Jan to end of Feb. The Chinese New Year is extremely important to the Chinese as this is the time that people get to spend time with their families.

Q2. Why 2016 is Called the Year of Monkey?

Each Chinese New Year is characterised by one of 12 animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac. This year is the Year of the Monkey, the ninth animal of the cycle. The next Year of the Monkey will be in 2028.

Q3. Things Must/Mustn’t Do to avoid a year of bad luck?

Don’t talk about death or anything negative

Don’t buy any shoes as it is considered very unlucky

It is said that if you sweep up rubbish or throw away rubbish on Chinese New Year Day, you will be sweeping or throwing away the wealth and luck.

Wear red underwear (This is an interesting one,isn’t it?)

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below and I’ll get back to you 🙂

I hope you all have enjoyed reading this and wish you all a very prosperous and happy new year!